A New Outlook After Drink Inc's Fresh Hop Fest

I've been to a lot of beer festivals, but never a hop festival. Leave it to Drink Inc to create a Fresh Hop Festival featuring local brewers and local hops. Berkeley Church was the venue of choice and they chose well.

The patrons attending this event were not your usual beer drinkers. The patrons were true beer enthusiasts, brewers and beer media. The Ontario Craft Brewers Conference was the next day, so it brought a lot of beer expertise to the area. It had a completely different vibe than every beer festival I've attended. It also featured brewers I usually don't see on the festival scene.

As someone that is not a fan of IPAs, I was genuinely concerned I wouldn't find a beer I liked. I assumed every drink would be over-the-top hoppy. Boy, I was wrong. The beers I sampled used hops as an accent, rather than the main event. Many were cirtrusy, clovey and just plain good. A few of my favourites were from Nickelbrook/BigHead Hops, The Second Wedge/6th Hops and Redline Brewhouse/Highland Hop Yard.

While you sipped on fabulous fresh hop brews and snacked on Sobeys charcuterie, you were serenaded by the music of 2 talented acoustic artists. What a great night! Drink Inc should do it again next year!